A team of international graduate students at Sweden’s Lund University have designed a product as a response to the huge percentage of fresh food wastage and the need to supply nutritious food during disaster relief.
Their product, named FoPo Food Powder is a fruit and vegetable product that allows food to be freeze-dried and powdered, which in turn increases it’s shelf life by two whole years.
Why freeze-dried? By taking produce that would otherwise be thrown out and wasted (through either over-ripening or bruising,) the students found that the process can retain most of the nutritional benefits.
“[We are] not into using a new product or new technology, [but] creating value out of the inefficiency of the food system,” FoPo co-founder Gerald Marin told Mashable. “The innovation of our business is that we are getting the expired fruits and vegetables.”
This means that the powder can be consumed in its own – with added water, or as a supplement to nutrient poor food.
The company is aiming to provide a supplement that can go beyond eradicating waste and be used to supply a fibrous food product to those who need it most.
One member of the team grew up in the Philippines and had seen first hand how natural disasters affected communities and how important it was to have access to nutritional food.
The group has reportedly received support from the Philippine government and is working with the UN’s Initiative on Food Loss and Waste, to try and use their products to reach populations in need.
